McLaren has confirmed Sauber's Matt Morris will join its team as engineering director to work alongside technical director Tim Goss.

Morris had been among the leading members of Sauber's technical department and will now be replaced as chief designer by Eric Gandelin from within the Swiss team. McLaren has been on the lookout for senior technical staff since Paddy Lowe left the team at the start of the year, and it confirmed on Friday that Morris would be joining to help with its 2014 project as well as the arrival of Honda engines in 2015.

After the departure of Lowe, McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale said earlier this year that he was working on bolstering his technical team: "I need to make sure that we have got somebody who is championing us, as Paddy was, in the longer-term research and development programme. Keeping the stuff that is further away alive is important. But Tim and the guys are doing a good job on the here and now."

Sporting director Sam Michael added: "With the amount of work we have ahead of next year's regulation changes and also the Honda project, it's quite a chunky piece of work. It's happening at the moment but Matt coming will definitely help us add to that engineering strength. I'm looking forward to him joining."

Following the Rugby Football Union's announcement on Sunday that England Sevens coach Ben Ryan is set to relinquish his role, various past, present and future England internationals have taken to Twitter to praise him